Being an American comes with many freedoms, but it also means a responsibility to help others around the globe in the quest for liberty, said Dwight Thomas, a Korean War veteran from Marlin.

“We are one of the powers of the world, and I think we need to stand up for freedom and try to protect the people that can’t protect themselves,” he said.

Thomas served more than a year in the war, which began in June 1950 after Communist North Korea invaded South Korea. The United States and 15 other countries sent troops to aid South Korea, while Chinese soldiers intervened to help the North.

Marlin Korean War veteran Dwight Thomas holds up the peace medal he received during a recent tour of South Korea sponsored by the Korean government.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

When he returned home after the war ended in July 1953, concerns remained that the shaky cease-fire between the two countries would not hold. South Korea’s ability to rebound from the war’s destruction was also in question.

Thomas and his wife, Dorothy, recently returned from a weeklong tour of South Korea sponsored by the Korean government.

The tour gave Korean War veterans from nearly 10 countries a chance to see the developments made in South Korea during the past 60 years.

“When I sailed out of the harbor there in 1953, I thought nothing of ever going back,” said Thomas, 80. “But it was well worth the trip, and the gracious people of South Korea were more than we could expect.”

The U.S.-based Military Historic Tours helped American veterans of the war sign up to participate in the trip.

James Wiedhahn, tour leader and coordinator for the company, said often the veterans walk away from the tour amazed at the nation’s progress.

“They’re glad to see that the efforts they put over there worked,” Wiedhahn said. “These guys went on to live with not quite knowing that they made a difference, and the Korean government’s goal is to show them that they did.”

Going to war

Thomas, whose older brother served in the Navy during World War II, originally set out for a career in newspapers and began working in the advertising department of the Tribune-Herald .

He was drafted into the Army in April 1952, just six days before he was to marry his wife.

“I had no plans at all of going into the service, but things worked out otherwise,” Thomas said with a chuckle.

He went through officer training in Fort Chaff, then headed to Seattle, Wash., in October before heading to South Korea with the Army’s 7th Infantry, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 48th Field Artillery Battalion.

The first winter brought brutally cold temperatures. The severe weather caught his unit by surprise, for they lacked the proper winter coats and gear to shield them from the snow.

“Later I got my what we call ‘Mickey Mouse’ boots, and they were thermal boots, and that kept my feet warm,” Thomas said, referring to rubber ankle boots that resembled shoes worn by the cartoon character.

During most of his 13-month tour of duty, Thomas was in charge of directing artillery fire against the North Korean army. That role put him near the front lines of many fierce battles, including a monthlong campaign at Triangle Hill and a series of intense engagements at Old Baldy.

“One night, we had a massive amount of Chinese Communists and North Koreans trying to overrun the hill (at Old Baldy), and we had to call in division artillery to blanket the whole area,” Thomas said. “That was probably one of the most exciting yet traumatic type of things I experienced.”

Thomas stayed in Korea through the peace negotiations between the two countries and the signing of the cease-fire agreement in July 1953.

When he left to return to Waco, South Korea was devastated. One of his only souvenirs from the country was a thin, 10-inch metal smoking pipe he found in a village that had been flattened during the war.

“In Seoul, it was just pretty well bombed out. I went down there one time, and there were just kinda shantylike things that people had set up,” Thomas said. “But it was just like daylight and dark when we went down there for the trip.”

‘Like New York City’

The South Korea he saw during the weeklong visit hardly reflected the despair and destruction left at the end of the war. Thomas took pictures of Seoul that featured dozens and dozens of skyscrapers and high-rise apartments covering downtown.

Each day, the street below the couple’s hotel room would be lined with cars in bumper-to-bumper jams jetting through the city.

“It’s truly a metropolitan city now,” Dorothy Thomas said. “It’s unbelievable. It’s even to me like you’re living in New York City.”

The tour included visits to the Korean War Museum, Korean War Memorial and National Cemetery. The South Korean prime minister and president addressed the group, and each veteran was presented with an Ambassador of Peace medal.

A 1951 photo of Korean War veteran Dwight Thomas lies among other memorabilia from Thomas’ military service.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

Remaining tension

Some of the tension that sparked the war still exists. North and South Korean soldiers solemnly face each other across the demarcation line separating the two countries. Ironically, the line crosses between the two blue buildings where each side would deliberate during the 1953 peace talks.

Dwight Thomas said officials forbade the group from taking pictures of Camp Bonifas, the United Nations military post located in the 2.5 mile-wide guarded demilitarized zone that serves as a buffer between the north and south.

“It’s for security, because they think it could get out on the Internet, and the enemy could say, ‘Here’s a weak spot that we can go in there,’ ” Thomas said. “It’s on high alert all the time.”

Thomas said the trip reaffirmed his belief that the U.S. involvement in the conflict was worthwhile and that South Korea would not have flourished as much if America and U.N. countries had not risen to its defense.

“I think America stood up for freedom, and I think it was well worth the fight,” Thomas said. “It really makes me proud that I was part of it.”

rdennis@wacotrib.com

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